Ajou University School of Medicine 3 articles published in JoVE Neuroscience Neuron-Macrophage Co-cultures to Activate Macrophages Secreting Molecular Factors with Neurite Outgrowth Activity Hyeok Jun Yun1,2, Eun-Hye Kim1,2, Byung Gon Kim1,2,3 1Department of Brain Science, Ajou University School of Medicine, 2Neuroscience Graduate Program, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Ajou University School of Medicine, 3Department of Neurology, Ajou University School of Medicine The current protocol presents experimental procedures to stimulate cultured macrophages to be endowed with capacity to release molecular factors that promote neurite outgrowth. Treatment of cAMP to the neuron-macrophage co-cultures induces the macrophages to produce conditioned medium that possesses strong neurite outgrowth activity. Medicine Intraoperative Gastroscopy for Tumor Localization in Laparoscopic Surgery for Gastric Adenocarcinoma Hoon Hur1, Sang-Yong Son1, Yong Kwan Cho1, Sang-Uk Han1 1Department of Surgery, Ajou University, School of Medicine In early gastric cancer, the aim of surgery is to precisely remove the distal stomach including the primary tumor. To do this, accurate localization of the tumor is crucial, especially in totally laparoscopic surgery. This protocol describes a procedure for intraoperative gastroscopy in totally laparoscopic subtotal gastrectomy. Developmental Biology Loss- and Gain-of-function Approach to Investigate Early Cell Fate Determinants in Preimplantation Mouse Embryos Jae H. Lee1,2, Yong II Cho5, Sung S. Choi4, Hae-Won Kim1,2, Churl K. Min3, Sang J. Lee5 1Department of Nanobiomedical Sciences and BK21 PLUS NBM Global Research Center for Regenerative Medicine, Dankook University, 2Insititute of Tissue Regeneration Engineering, Dankook University, 3Department of Biological Sciences, Ajou University, 4Department of Pharmacy, Sahmyook University, 5Department of Animal Biotechnology, Sahmyook University The goal of this protocol is to describe a loss- and gain-of function method that is applicable to identify neogenin as a stage-specific receptor that leads to trophectoderm and inner cell mass differentiation in preimplantation mouse embryos.